As the Media Start to Enshrine Byrd, Questions About His Legacy Endure

Treading carefully while not speaking ill of the dead, obvious questions should be asked in the ramp-up to our traditional glorification of elected royalty.

How would the media and liberal establishment today react to a GOP politician who was a former Klan recruiter? Seems to me a Republican with such a past would have been rightfully destroyed in the media prior to a primary, let alone sit unscathed by past associations long enough to be the longest sitting United States Senator.

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In an attempt of post mortem damage control, CNN is covering for the legacy of Senator Byrd by including his quote that joining the Klan was “the greatest mistake of my life”, while showing little outrage of his 14 hour, 13 minute filibuster to kill the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which Democrats falsely and brazenly claim to have always supported.

Imagine what would be said about a Republican appearing on Fox News Sunday, talking about how his mother complained about “white niggers.” Would a nationwide mea culpa tour be demanded, including detours to kiss the rings of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, not to mention those who would be considered ‘white niggers’ offended? As he was an old Democrat (age seems to be an excuse for exhibiting old ways of thinking) , Byrd suffered no real repercussions from his verbal faux pas:

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Let’s just be fair. If an association with a Democrat terror outfit is an obvious disqualifier for one, it should be for everyone. If people can lose jobs over using racial slurs, then those who use them in a particular party should face the same firing squad Don Imus had to endure.

We elect public servants, not royalty. Whether it be letting a young woman drown in a crashed, submerged automobile or signing up people to join a murderous shadow group, the past shouldn’t be swept under the rug just to continue the legacy of partisan, revisionist history.

Robert Carlyle Byrd’s past affiliations should have disqualified him from public office. All people can be forgiven and there are many other ways he could have sought visible redemption. Giving him power of people over people he once believed could and should be eradicated was a travesty. If Robert Byrd is to rest in peace, that decision will come from someone much wiser than I.

As far as this mere mortal is concerned, there are some things that cannot ever be forgiven and forgotten.